By Salik
Taliban forces have shot dead at least four people, including a child, during a religious ceremony in Ghazni city, multiple sources have told Rukhshana Media.
Twenty others were injured when the Taliban opened fire on a procession marking the holy day of Ashura.
Resident Sohail Haidari said the shooting started around 2pm after a group of mourners coming from the Qalae Shada area ignored Taliban orders to stop.
“The Taliban forces with Humvees, military vehicles, and weapons and batons chased the people into the alleys,” he said.
Ghazni city/ photo: submitted to Rukhshana media.
Sunni Muslims mark Ashura, held on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, in mosques.
However, Shiite traditionally also stage public processions to mourn the death in battle of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Imam Hussein on the same day. His death led to the eventual schism between Sunni and Shiite.
This year, the Taliban imposed severe restrictions on how Shiite could mark the day across Afghanistan, particularly women and girls.
Mr. Haidari said the Taliban banned processions in Ghazni city, but many ignored the order and marched from Qala Shada to Nawabad.
Another resident, Ruhollah Rafi, confirmed the incident and said that four people died and least 15 others were injured.
One social media video shows mourners running in all directions out of fear of the Taliban’s bullets. A boy falls on the ground. People near him say: “He has been shot”.
Meanwhile, the Taliban governor’s office in Ghazni province released a statement claiming the mourners attacked their forces with stones and sticks, causing several injuries. The statement called the mourners “rioters”.
“This was the destructive act of rioters who intended to disturb the security situation and prepare the ground for a clash to defame the security forces.”
The statement also claimed the elders of Shiites in the province had agreed not to hold the mourning ceremony outside mosques.
Other accounts suggested the Taliban started the violence.
Ruhollah Rafi said the Taliban had provoked a confrontation ten days earlier in the Pol-e-Haidarabad area of Ghazni.
“The Taliban took a Muharram flag from a motorcycle and threw it in the sea. That’s when the fight started,” he said. “The Taliban detained five people. Nothing was known for a few days. They were tortured so much before their release that they were all admitted to hospitals.”
Women Defy Bans in Kabul
In West Kabul, Taliban used whips and gun butts to try to stop a group of female mourners marching. They pushed on regardless.
Basira Begzad, a member of Women’s Movement and one of the mourners, said about 300 women and girls set off from Barchi to march towards Sakhi pilgrimage chanting Ashura slogans.
“We arrived at Kot-e-Sangi where the Taliban forces surrounded us,” she said. “They asked us to disperse and return to Barchi.”
She described the Taliban’s treatment of girls as violent and insulting. “They [the Taliban] told us that ‘you girls are in mourning, you are very impudent and have no chastity at all’,” she said.
Basira said the girls bravely continued chanting and refused to listen to the Taliban’s orders.
Kabul/ photo: submitted to Rukhshana media.
She added that Afghan women have been facing “targeted gender discrimination” for two years, forcing them not to speak out for fear of arrest or beating. “This is why we celebrate Ashura on streets to make them understand that we also have a share in the community,” she said.
“Finally, the Taliban forces resorted to violence and beat women and girls with whips and rifle butts. Several girls scattered. At that moment, a group of mourners, including men and women, who were going from Kart-e-Sakhi to Barchi, arrived, and we united with that group and moved back to Barchi with them.”
Basira said the Taliban forces tried at least 10 times to disperse their mourning group during more than two hours of marching.
“After a few moments at the Mahtab Qala area of Kabul, the Taliban forces surrounded us again from the Barchi and started to fire into the air to disperse the women mourners.
“They repeatedly stood in front of us and tried to disperse us with various excuses, including the fear of ISIS and the explosion,” she added. “But no one paid the slightest attention to what they [the Taliban] said.”
Social media users praised their courage. Many saw it as a sign that women were fed up with the Taliban’s restrictions.
Masooma Khawari, a member of the lower house in the previous government, praised their courage on Twitter, comparing them to Imam Hussein’s sister Zainab, who relayed his mission to the world after his death. She said they were “the Zainabs of the west of Kabul at noon of Ashura”.
Nasrullah Sadeqi, a social activist, welcomed the women’s and girls’ march and tweeted that the women under the rule of the Yazidis (Taliban) bravely came to the streets and became messengers and defenders of their Ashura ceremony like Zainab.
The videos of Taliban forces firing shots to try to suppress the mourners went viral on social media.
Earlier, the Taliban had promised that this year’s Muharram mourning ceremony would be held without any obstacles. In practice, they interfered with Sunni mourners in different parts of Kabul city and the provinces, using violence against mourning groups.
Taliban in Kabul city removed mourning flags from gates, rooves and houses in Wazir Akbar Khan, Red Bridge and Kote Sangi and stopped some mourning stations from being set up.
The Taliban also disabled telecommunication signals and internet services in the cities of Kabul, Ghazni and Mazar-e-Sharif. A telecommunication services spokesperson, speaking to Deutsche Welle, said this was to ensure the security of the Ashura ceremony.
In Balkh, it’s the second year that the gate of the Shrine of Hazrat-e-Ali is closed to the mourners
The mourning ceremony in Balkh province, another major city of the country, was also accompanied by severe restrictions.
A religious scholar in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, told Rukhshana Media that a few days before the beginning of the month of Muharram, officials of Vice and Virtue, Information and Culture, Intelligence departments, and other security institutions of the Taliban in the province called a meeting with the Council of Shia Ulemas of Mazar.
The officials insisted mourners should refrain from raising flags over shops, houses, and creating Muharram mourning gates in the alleys and streets.
One religious scholar at the meeting, Mr. Sajjadi, said the Taliban emphasized that mourning ceremonies should not be held in alleys, bazaars and especially Hazrat Ali’s shrine. Mourning gatherings could only be held in designated mosques. The Shi’a Ulema Council rejected the requests.
Sajjadi added that the Taliban raised these restrictions under the pretext of covering security issues, claiming ISIS forces could be lurking in Shiite gatherings outside mosques.
Mr. Sajjadi said the Ashura of this year was not as glorious and exciting as previous years.
“The city and the bazaar were not covered in black and mourning groups could not participate in public processions,” he said. “They were not even allowed to mourn inside the Shrine of Hazrat Ali.”
Mr. Sajjadi said this is the second year that Sakhi shrine has been closed to mourners. He is concerned that restrictions will only worsen.
“This process of increasing restrictions by the Islamic Emirate will increase,” he said. “If it done without the Imams of the mosques, the consequences will be even more severe.”
But Mr. Sajjadi noted the prominence of women marking Ashura.
“The presence of women in the mourning ceremonies of Muharram and Ashura is part of the religious and religious traditions of the Shiites and has a long history,” he said. “The imposed restrictions do not bring any change in it.”
Lack of women in the heart of Taliban power
Restrictions on celebrating the decade of Muharram and Ashura in Kandahar city, which is known as the heart of Taliban power due to the presence of the Taliban leader, have been more severe than in other provinces of the country.
A public source in Kandahar city, told Rukhshana Media that Tasu’a (one day before Ashura) and Ashura have been celebrated in Kandahar city only with the presence of men and boys.
The source said that women and girls celebrated the days of Tasu’a and Ashura in their homes and were not allowed to attend mosques. He added that the restrictions were not imposed by the Taliban, but the Shiites of Kandahar themselves requested that women and girls not participate in the ceremonies of the mosques on these two days.
The Taliban also tried to limit the number of ceremonies in mosques. The source said that the Taliban forces went to some mosques in the Shiite areas of this city, including the 6th, 7th, and 8th districts, and said mourning ceremonies could only be held in the first district. The city’s council of scholars rejected the request and said mourning ceremonies would be held in all Shia mosques and Shia residents’ houses as usual.
According to the source, the Taliban response was as follows:
- Taliban forces came to mosques at around 10 am on the Day of Ashura and prevented the mourners from attending mosques.
- The Taliban intelligence department told journalists in Kandahar city not to cover the mourning ceremony of Shias.
Most reporters ignored the directive. However, no reporters from National TV in Kandahar, which operates under Taliban control, attended. The source added that reporters did not pay attention to their words; however, no reporter from National TV in Kandahar, which operates under the control of the Taliban, attended the main mourning ceremony at Fatimia Mosque, where more than 10,000 people gathered.
The full presence of women in Herat
In Herat, mourning ceremonies went ahead without restriction.
Local sources told Rukhshana Media that in the lead up to Ashura Taliban forces tried to take down Muharram flags from the gates of shops and houses in the mainly Shitte area of Bekr Abad, provoking a physical confrontation.
After the intervention of the Shia Ulema Council, the Taliban relented, and the public mood calmed.
Mohammad Sadiq Yosufi, the head of mourning ceremonies in the Al-Mahdi Jabreil area, said some places chose not to raise flags out of security concerns, but this year’s Muharram and Ashura was celebrated without any obstacles and with a large presence of women and girls.
Despite the Taliban’s brutal attacks on mourners elsewhere, Taliban leaders praised their forces for ensuring “security”.
Acting Prime Minister, Mullah Hassan Akhund, said in a statement that their forces had implemented a special security plan for the celebration of the Muharram across Afghanistan.
